I know this is a reach, but I told him I'd try!!

My partner needlepoints.

(Try telling him he won't be able to bring his scissors and needles on board for the nine-hour flight! But that's a separate posting....)

Wherever we have travelled in the past, he has been able to find a needlepoint shop that sells printed patterns/canvases, etc. He is usually able to find a great project that ends up being a wonderful souvenir of our travel.

Does anyone know of such a shop in Madrid (or Segovia, Jaen, or Malaga, for that matter)?

You might try El Gato Negro, which is located in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid. Also, there is a store on the corner in Sol, though I can't recall the name. If you walk out of the Plaza toward Sol, I think it is on the left as you get to Sol. Both sell yarn, and might sell other needlecraft stuff. If not, they can tell you where to go to find some.

You might also brush up on a few of the vocab words you'll want to use to buy canvas, yarn, needles, etc.--I didn't know the words for "knitting needles," for example, and had to try to describe them in my marginal Castellano.

I think there were more similar stores in that same area, by the way. If you think it's sometimes hard to get a caña in a crowded bar, though, just WAIT 'till you see how tricky it can be to get served in one of those places--there's a secret (to me) system of who gets helped and when. Just stand there looking lost for a bit and someone will take pity on you (it'll help to be men--my husband stood out like a sore thumb among the abuelas in the shops we went to--apparently fiber arts are predominantly still done by older ladies in Spain)!

Interestingly, the yarn I bought was sold by weight, in enormous hanks. I told them what I wanted to make, and they handed me two big hanks of yarn. When I got home and made my sweater, I had EXACTLY enough!

Have fun! (And I have wondered if I will ever be able to bring my knitting needles on planes again--I knit during flights to mellow out and can't imagine losing my needles beforehand!)
Tara

[ 10-01-2001: Message edited by: taravb ]

Hi again, Hugh--
Nevado suggested Plaza Pontejos, near Sol, when I posted last spring about buying yarn in Madrid. I am not sure exactly where that is, but it is most certainly in the vicinity of the two shops I mentioned in the last post. And it's nice to walk around there anyway. I didn't find yarn in El Corte Ingles, BTW, so I don't expect your partner would have any luck with needlepoint things there either.

Tara

Yet another thought--
I remember seeing some needlepoint kits in some of the nicer souvenir shops we visited, too--so if your partner is looking for something Spanish-themed, it might be worth exploring some of those (if you make it to Toledo, the shop across from the Catedral is lovely--it's where you get tickets and audioguides--I don't recall if there were kits there, but they had other nice things).

Also, I noticed (while shopping for yarn) that the selection and variety were not what I had hoped. It didn't seem to me that knitting had surged in popularity in Spain the way it has here recently (thanks, Julia Roberts!). For me, that meant that, while the prices were somewhat lower, so was the quality (in my estimation). I don't know whether that will be the same for needlepoint things, but what happened in my case was that I went from shop to shop (including ones in other towns) and tried to find something "nicer," then ended up finally "settling" a bit just to have a project to do. You may want to negotiate ahead of time just how much of a quest your partner wants to make this!!

Happy hunting--
Tara